Assignment 2: Card 1

Research

I’ve got some tattoos and many other do too. It is a special moment, always really, to decide on the design, feeling the pain of it being hammered into your skin and knowing it will stay there. Forever. This is especially true if it’s your first one. This moment, after you’ve got your first tattoo is definitely worth heaving its own greeting card. Congrats on your first Tattoo!

Tattoos – so it’s ok for the card to be a bit edgy in its design. Not too much but enough to take away initial fears or regrets of the person getting one. It should show that other people do crazy things and don’t regret it either (i hope so at least).

This was the leading thought i had with me creating the mood board. It didnt take long when i stumbled across a picture of a Lip Tattoo. Crazy enough to shock a bit and at the same time giving a perfect space to place a message. What if it would say “congrats” on the lip?

Thumbnails

I’ve created some quick thumbnails to visualize the idea further.

Design

I wanted to use my own photography, so i photographed my wife, pulling her lips.

Back in Photoshop, i had to add some text on top of her lip and let it look somewhat realistic. It came out to be a very difficult task for me. This took long.

I’ve used my stylus to hand draw the text in photoshop and vectorize it. Using “skew” and “distort” options helped me to place it according to the stretching of the lips. Adding a bit of “bevel” and “light” effects added depth and “overlay” modes combined the text with the lip even further. I’ve searched for some Tattoo inspired icons and added them, using the same workflow, as additional tattoos on her upper body.

Color

I’ve wanted to use overlay color for the design. After some color experiments, I continued with a soft red and green mix. Red underlines the edginess and pain of getting a tattoo while green calms everything down again. The happiness after you’ve recovered from the tattoo session itself. Additional white circles were added behind the person to add depth and an overall more interesting design.

Text

The image is bold enough, so i went with a minimal and calm Font (Futura) for the text inside of the card. I’ve added a gradient using the same color combination as the front design on the text and the border around it.